Mac Studio M7 Ultra Expected in 2028 With Better Cooling

[MacRumors]

The next major Mac Studio update is still a couple of years away, but a refresh for 2026 is still in the cards, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Writing in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman said Apple has two Mac Studio refreshes in the pipeline: an M5 Ultra version due this year, and a more significant M7 Ultra model expected in 2028.

Apple appears set to skip the higher-end M6 chips entirely, hence the two-year gap between the two models. Gurman reported earlier this month that Apple is canceling its higher-end M6 Pro and M6 Max chips, instead releasing a base M6 this year and moving its next Pro and Max silicon to the M7 lineup, which is expected to lean heavily into on-device AI and GPU-intensive workloads.

Apple has always had at least three variants of its in-house silicon, including the base M-series chip, a Pro version, and a Max version. The M6 will mark the first time that Apple is not coming out with a Pro or Max chip for the lineup.

For the Mac Studio, that means jumping straight from M5 Ultra to M7 Ultra – there will be no M6 Ultra in between. While a major redesign is not expected for this year's M5 Ultra model, Gurman says Apple has been developing new inner architecture for the 2028 Mac Studio, including a better heat sink to improve thermal performance.

The ‌Mac Studio‌ refresh was supposed to come earlier in 2026, but Apple reportedly postponed the launch because of memory chip supply issues and price increases. Apple has reportedly tested support for up to 768GB of unified memory, but supply constraints could prevent it from launching with an option for that much memory.

It remains unclear whether Apple will make an October launch for the M5 version, especially given that the current M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ still has delivery estimates stretching into October.

Article Link: Mac Studio M7 Ultra Expected in 2028 With Better Cooling

 

[MacUserFella]

Hopefully it’s affordable 👀

Who am I kidding, of course it won’t

 

[vegetassj4]

Prolific leaker CrabApplePrime has leaked the case design

 

[Apple MessagePad]

Cooling is really what's been holding back the current Mac Studio.

 

[dricci]

Prolific leaker CrabApplePrime has leaked the case design

View attachment 2641765

I'm getting PowerBook G5 vibes!

 

[vegetassj4]

I'm getting PowerBook G5 vibes!

that's when they release the MacBook Studio

 

[turbineseaplane]

2028?

For a second, I had to double check that it is still the middle of 2026 right now.

Hopefully the 2026 refresh still materializes.

 

[koil]

What I'm really interested in is what Apple are planning for the M69 Ultra in the year 2098.

 

[jsavvy]

The ‌Mac Studio‌ refresh was supposed to come earlier in 2026, but Apple reportedly postponed the launch because of memory chip supply issues and price increases.

"We would have launched this beautiful new product earlier, but we wanted to raise the other Mac prices first to soften the blow of sticker shock while still maximizing our profits on this product. We think you're going to love it."

 

[chars1ub0w]

So how many watts do we think the M5 Ultra Studio and M7 Ultra Studio will draw?
The current chassis can support 320W. The new one will be for 400W?

 

[mozumder]

I'm guessing the M7 Ultra will likely go all in on HBM for AI. Instead of ~1TBps memory bandwidth, here's hoping we get more in the range of 10TBps bandwidth and 1-2TB memory for large language model inference. Gonna be expensive AF too.

 

[Nyx1]

With moar high priceeeee than before

 

[boswald]

So with a new heatsink there will be a new fan, yes? Or are they simply changing the materials the heatsink is made of to make it more conductive? I wonder what they're made from now...

 

[hieranonymous]

Fast-tracking the M7 generation feels a bit like what Apple was doing in the Nineties when the 68K processor was getting outpaced by its competitors.

 

[Astuces iOS]

So how many watts do we think the M5 Ultra Studio and M7 Ultra Studio will draw?
The current chassis can support 320W. The new one will be for 400W?
View attachment 2641775

That’s not very problematic unless your electricity cost a lot

 

[SmithCommaJohn]

Instead of dollars, it will be more efficient to communicate the price using the GDP of various countries. The base model will be relatively affordable at 1 Grenada. The fully-specced M7 Ultra? Better start saving now because it'll run you a cool Denmark.

 

[Polesky]

I suspect the M5 Pro version is the one that most people are waiting for, considering the M4 Pro MacStudio is currently unobtainium. The Ultra version will probably only be of interest to billionaires.

 

[Blackstick]

10-12 weeks out for the most basic of Mac studios. It’s not like the product is currently on the market either way.

 

[kiranmk2]

Will the M5 Ultra version launch at all in this market with severe RAM shortages? The M3 Ultra with 96 GB RAM already costs £5,300 and the 512 GB version has been withdrawn.

Intel's failure to get to 10 nm processes killed the 12" rMB back in 2017. I wonder if the inability to get sufficient RAM will kill the Studio in 2026?

 

[Quicksilver867]

What I'm really interested in is what Apple are planning for the M69 Ultra in the year 2098.

I too as well additionally am interested also

 

[CDPlayer]

I remember when Tim Cook promised less expensive Apple Silicon systems during the announced switch from Intel.

Of course, that never happened and now with AI technocrats we can have the same systems for thirty to forty percent more. I can’t wait to sell a kidney when it comes time to update my M Ultra.

 

[CDPlayer]

What I'm really interested in is what Apple are planning for the M69 Ultra in the year 2098.

I’m just glad you didn't use 67.

hence the two-year gap between the two models.

Wait a second, wasn’t one of the core reasons on ditching Intel the tick tock release model? Sooooo Apple is now doing the same?

 

[CWallace]

Will the M5 Ultra version launch at all in this market with severe RAM shortages? The M3 Ultra with 96 GB RAM already costs £5,300 and the 512 GB version has been withdrawn.

Apple is probably hoarding the RAM modules necessary for 256GB+ configurations to have stock for the M5 Ultra. At the last Financial Report, they noted Mac Studio and Mac mini sales were sharply up due to people buying them to run AI LLM models locally and they know that needs RAM.

But they are going to be hyper-expensive.

 

[Biro]

I suspect the M5 Pro version is the one that most people are waiting for, considering the M4 Pro MacStudio is currently unobtainium. The Ultra version will probably only be of interest to billionaires.

There have never been Pro chips in Mac Studios. The base and Pro chips went into the Mini (we’re talking only desktops here) with the Max and Ultra chips going to the Studio. But I’ll bet you knew that and just made a typing error. Still, given the current environment, I certainly wouldn’t rule out a higher-end Pro chip for the Studio if Apple wanted to make one. I’m just wondering if we’re really going to see an M5 Max version of the Studio. The latest stories seem to carefully write around references to the Max.

 

[magbarn]

I remember when Tim Cook promised less expensive Apple Silicon systems during the announced switch from Intel.

Of course, that never happened and now with AI technocrats we can have the same systems for thirty to forty percent more. I can’t wait to sell a kidney when it comes time to update my M Ultra.

I still remember all the posters here claiming that AS will result in significantly cheaper Macs.